Murder Suspects Released

No Charges Filed In Estes’ Death

June 20, 2014

STEUBENVILLE -Two men Steubenville Police took into custody Monday in the weekend shooting death of Andrew Estes were released from the Jefferson County Justice Center on Thursday when no charges were filed.

Estes, 22, of Newark, N.J., was standing on the porch at a house at 722 Rosswell Ave. with another man when shots were fired at about 11:42 p.m. Saturday, police reported.

The other man ran inside, and, when he came back out, he discovered Estes had been shot, police reported.

Estes died Sunday in a Pittsburgh hospital.

Spent shell casings were found in the area, police reported.

Police, members of the county's special response team, sheriff's deputies, the county drug task force and the U.S. Marshals Service executed a search warrant Monday afternoon at 1308 Oregon Ave., looking for two men police called "persons of interest." They weren't found inside the house but were arrested several hours later in the same neighborhood.

Law enforcement has 72 hours after a person is arrested to file charges.

The sheriff's department did discover Thursday where Estes got the gun he was carrying at the time of the shooting.

An off-duty city police officer working security at the Fort Steuben Mall noticed a pickup truck being driven by a man who has a history of thefts.

The officer followed the pickup truck to the parking lot of the Schiappa Branch of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County and watched the driver and other man go over the hill toward Lowe's. The officer said he saw the two men come back to the truck and throw items into the bed, while a female was waiting in the cab.

Police immediately closed in on the truck and took all three into custody. Tools and other stolen items were discovered. The two men were charged with petit theft.

A female in the truck told a deputy she had information about a break-in, which occurred in Smithfield on March 4, in which a handgun was stolen.

The sheriff's department had entered the gun and its serial number in a national database on March 5 as stolen.

That gun was the same .380 caliber that Estes was carrying.

Estes was one of four Steubenville men indicted by a New Jersey grand jury in September for allegedly selling or possessing firearms.